31 January. Jolly news for these snowy times - Rebellion are to release a 48-page Cor! & Buster Special on 17 April, featuring characters including Sweeney Toddler and Gums, drawn by the likes of Ned Hartley, Cavan Scott, Abigail Bulmer and Tanya Roberts. This will be followed by a reprint for Free Comic Book Day (4 May) entitled Funny Pages, featuring reprints from the archive.

29 October. Judge Dredd Megazine will include a bagged tribute to the late Carlos Ezquerra. "Carlos' death was a profound shock, not just to everyone at 2000AD but also to his fans across the world," says editor Matt Smith. "This small collection of his stories shows not just his evolution as an artist but also a sense of his incredibly consistent quality over more than four decades."

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Sunday, December 07, 2014

This Was The Wizard by Derek Marsden & Ray Moore

Although they feel as if they were something enjoyed by your grandfather's generation, the text story paper did not disappear entirely until 1973. As the first boys' story paper debuted in 1863, that's a 110-year time span. The bulk of story papers—nicknamed penny dreadfuls and tuppenny bloods over the years but these days treated as indistinguishable from comics—are long forgotten and academia seems to have taken little interest in them outside of as a way to guage historic attitudes to masculinity.

Social history aside, there has been little effort made to chart the history of individual story papers. George Beal's The Magnet Companion, for instance, was little more than a list of the lead Greyfriars/Billy Bunter stories, making no effort to index the back-up stories or features nor any attempt to trace the paper's history and influence. Two further attempts at listing the contents of long-running titles also fell short: Colin Morgan's The Rover Index because it covered only post-war issues and The Hotspur: A Catalogue by Derek Advley and Bill Lofts living too much up to its name and offering nothing more than a list of story and serial titles and dates with no attempt to describe the contents.

These were intended for the hardcore reader of those titles or the newcomer attempting to build a collection. And here is the first difference between these past attempts and This Was The Wizard: you don't need to own a collection of The Wizard to enjoy the book. Detailed introductions and a great many illustrations will give you all the context you need.

Launched in 1922, the third of Thomson's Big Five papers, The Wizard continued the trend already established in Adventure and The Rover for a mix of adventure and sport stories and serials. By rotating characters in and out of its pages, The Wizard was able to roll out a wide variety of characters. Air adventurers, footballers, detectives, cowboys, athletes... stories would be rested and the most popular ones revived for series after series.

Derek Marsden's introduction offers a flavour of some of the early characters, ranging from Bob Kennedy, the boy bosun, and his pal Ginger Cobb, who own a boat called the Firefly. "They are soon involved in a bitter battle between a couple of Tongs near the Philippines. Trouble in the shape of pirates also finds them in the Amazon, where Ginger has to rescue Bob from a snarling, and probably hungry, jaguar." Meanwhile, Montana Jack is investigating cattle rustlers and Joy Stick Dan Kelvin is ditching his seaplane in the icy fjords of Norway; Spring-heeled Ted is a 17-year-old apprentice engineer and runner... although he was destined never to have the staying power of another marvellous athlete in The Wizard, Wilson.

Wilson developed as a character under the guidance of Wizard editor Willie Blain, who took over in 1927 from Fred Tait. It was Blain who helped create some of the paper's most popular stars, including the Wolf of Kabul, the Red MacGregor, Red Star Roberts and Thick-Ear Donovan. Under Blain, the paper began phasing out school stories and introduced science fiction, including such characters as the giant robot 'The Smasher'.

How The Wizard dealt with the war is deftly told, as are the introductions of V For Vengeance in 1942 and Wilson in 1943. In the Fifties, under the editorship of Norman Fowler,The Wizard introduced sporting legends Gorgeous Gus, Limp-Along Leslie and Bouncing Briggs. As the decade turned and Tim Cunningham briefly became editor in 1961-63, The Wizard was still able to produce the occasional classic amongst the reprints, amongst them 'Kashgar the Terrible' and 'The Frozen Man on the Mountain', which introduced the character Jake Jeffords.

I have found only one minor factual error in Marsden's historical overview and it is of nit-picking unimportance: he states that there was strike in March 1947, causing the paper to miss two issues, but it is more likely that this was down to the extreme weather experienced in the UK in February/March of that year.

Whilst the book is factually impeccable, there is a tendency to compartmentalise everything: the history of the paper is followed by a set of biographies of the editors, then of the artists who supplied the header illustrations; since the editors and their enormous influence is covered in the introduction, it would have made more sense to incorporate biographical details; similarly, the artists are separated from the discussion of the characters they helped define. The historical introduction is sparsely illustrated with tiny, uncredited vignettes but the author biographies have no illustrations at all.

The serial listing is illustrated by having sample header illos. all grouped together on a single page, 27 2-inch-wide pictures on one page but generally 21 tiny images per page. At the other extreme, the book scores highly with a couple of sets of colour inserts—ten pages each with 12 sample covers, 16 pages of promotional material and 12 pages of free gifts.

The index itself has lists of serials, complete stories, cartoons, free gifts, the annuals and an index of serials.

Having produced lists of contents myself, I have to confess that I prefer a listing that will group the appearances of each character together, rather than listing serials strictly chronologically. The problem, exacerbated by the fact that The Wizard ran for forty years and carried 831 serials, is simply that it isn't easy to locate each appearance. To take an example close to my heart: 'The Yellow Sword' (serial 644) is listed as "John Maitland: series 1", yet the sequel ('Will o' the Whistle', serial 697) is not "John Maitland: series 2"—Maitland isn't the central character—and there is no indication that a related series had previously appeared; nor, I might add, is there any mention in the text about the first series that a sequel appeared two years later.

Most of the above comments can be summed up as "that's not how I would do it," which doesn't make the format chosen wrong. Different strokes for different folks and, to me, only a minor problem for a book that has such a vast amount of information in it.

I only hope that it doesn't take nearly as long for Derek and Ray to get their next volume out.

AVAILABLE NOW!Forgotten Authors Vol.1Click here for details and payment options"This is utterly fascinating: what a terrific accomplishment! It has held and engaged me. Authors who are only names have been documented and recorded, from the pathetic to the successful, and everywhere in between. This is incredible research, and I cannot begin to thank you enough for sharing it. I’m dipping into it with absolutely enormous pleasure."—Richard Bleiler"Recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of books, book publishing, obscure authors or even researching family history. Looking forward to Volume 2"—Amazon review.

AVAILABLE NOW!The Men Behind Flying Saucer ReviewClick here for details and payment options"Beginning in 1955, the Flying Saucer Review has been key to chronicling the appearance of Unidentified Flying Objects and the latest theories of why they have been appearing in our skies. A dedicated group of enthusiasts - amongst them an accountant, a publisher's editor, a test pilot, a novelist and a member of the House of Lords - were amongst those who helped put together this remarkable magazine. Who they were and how they came to work together makes for a fascinating tale, some of it as curious as the phenomena the magazine studied."

AVAILABLE NOW!Countdown to TV ActionClick here for details and payment options."The perfect compliment to my set of Countdown/TV Action" - Graham Bleathman."A wonderful trip down memory lane. Recommended" - Paul Simpson, Sci-Fi Bulletin"If you read Countdown as a child, you'll be fascinated by this account of its making ... indispensable." - John Freeman, Down the Tubes"The definitive history of the title" - Lew Stringer, Blimey!"I urge you to grab a copy and give Steve Holland a tip of the hat for the amount of hard work, research and love he's poured into making a book of information become an interesting story" - Barnaby Eaton-Jones, The Cult Den

Lion King of Picture Story PapersClick here to order"It's a great read in itself and has sent me back to the Lion comic to re-read some of my childhood favourites. The pictures are reproduced crystal clearly and even this old man can read the original art ... It's a gorgeous book and if we are snow-bound as the media has been saying for weeks, I have plenty to keep me amused this chilly January weekend!" - Norman Boyd.

Sexton Blake Annual 1941Click here to order"If you've been meaning to give Sexton Blake's adventures a try, this would be a great place to start. I've seen the actual annuals go on Ebay for three or four hundred bucks, so this is definitely a bargain too." - Singular Points.

Peter Jackson's London Is Stranger Than FictionClick here to order"The original books have been highly collectable for many years now, but finally they’ve been republished in a single volume from Bear Alley Books ... for the ridiculously reasonable price of £14.99. Do yourself a favour. " Christopher Fowler.

OUT OF PRINT!ArenaClick here for details and payment options"This book goes straight to the top of my large reading pile" - Graeme Neil Reid"With reality TV overload and the rise of the risque and the brutality of today’s society, this story still has a pertinent message for those of us who are willing to listen to it. In fact, I think the story is more relevant today than it was in 1979." - Colin Noble, Down the Tubes"The story is a fun read, but the star of the show is the art. Alcatena is a class act." - Hibernia Comics